Dolores Pumped-Storage Unit—A Case Study in Planning

The Durango Projects Office of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) conducted a pumped-storage investigation from 1981 to 1983 on a site in southwestern Colorado. This paper describes the results of the investigation of the Dolores Pumped-Storage Unit, a component of the Colorado River Storage Project Power Peaking Capacity Studies. The investigation examined the structural alternatives and the environmental and social impacts of building a power facility in the vicinity of another Reclamation project, the Dolores Project. Reclamation has decided that further studies of the pumped-storage unit by the Federal government are not warranted because additional peaking power capacity is not needed for federal project use.